Activist investors can either be an individual or entity who will buy shares in a company or corporation with a view to influencing the company’s behaviour using voting rights conferred by share ownership, this can include convincing other shareholders to vote the same way.

The term can also refer to a mass of individuals who buy shares in a reactionary response to institutional investors. This can often be an emotional response to prevent institutional investors from changing the fortunes of a company. Reliant on large numbers of small investors, activist investor campaigns can prevent hostile takeovers or buck the trend in share price decline.

In some contexts this term can refer to the process of placing in the public domain influential commentary about the value of a certain share price with a view to influencing it. There are clearly moral questions about this practice and in some cases it is simply illegal. Discussion boards on share trading platforms and social media have been areas where the practice has been applied.

A slang term to indicate the behaviour of a company or its stockbroker intended to increase the company share price. This can include overly positive statements about the company’s performance or a concerted effort to increase market share price by increasing company turnover through aggressive commercial activity at the expense of true profitability of the business.

Is an unofficial term used to describe the loser at the end of an upward trading chain. It implies that traders buying into an upturn in a stock’s value know that the share price is overvalued and will eventually fall, however they bet that for a while the value will keep increasing. The “next best fool” will be the stock buyer at the end of the chain who buys at the top price just as the share value hits the tipping point.